Page 4 - CambridgeLookingBackNeat

CAMBRIDGE: LOOKING BACK

Conestoga remains

committed to Cambridge

PHOTOS SUPPLIED BY CONESTOGA COLLEGE

A strong link to higher education Throughout the next few decades become home to four centres of excellence
is something Cambridge has as Cambridge expanded, the college with the consolidation of many existing
been fortunate to have to since continually added additional programs engineering technology and industry
to keep pace with growing demands, trade programs from the Doon and Guelph
its amalgamation thanks to to the point where it currently serves campuses. The cost for this venture was
Conestoga College. approximately 26,000 students (12,500 pegged at $47 million and would include
Founded in 1967 as Conestoga College of full time) through its eight campuses and a 200,000-square-foot building to house
Applied Arts and Technology, it was among training centres in Cambridge, Kitchener, 1,600 students by 2009.
22 community colleges established by the Waterloo, Stratford, Guelph, Ingersoll, and In the end, the college’s Engineering &
Ontario government between 1966-69 to Brantford. Technology Campus opened on Fountain
provide diplomas and certificates in career- Being designated in 2003 as one three Street South in Cambridge in 2011. The
related, skills-oriented programs. Institutes of Technology and Advance 260,000-square-foot building – awarded
In the beginning, Conestoga College offered Learning by the province, along with a LEED (Leadership in Energy and
only part-time classes out of Preston High Humber and Sheridan colleges, opened Environmental Design) silver certification
School as construction began on its Doon even more possibilities for the college now - not only housed innovative technology
campus site in the south end of Kitchener, that it could award degrees to students labs and shops, but the Institute of Food
and by 1969 had already expanded in its Mechanical Systems Engineering Processing Technology (IFPT) which
by setting up Adult Education Centres program and Bachelor of Architecture featured processing lines for beverages,
in Cambridge, Guelph, Stratford, and Project & Facility Management program. baked goods, vegetables, and a food testing
Waterloo. It also began offering 17 full-time Additional degree programs were added in laboratory. This 8,000-square-foot plant is
programs set up in portables at its Doon the years that followed. a one-of-a-kind learning facility in Canada.
site to accommodate 188 students, with 67 “I think the college has come a long way A year later the college established its
of them attending its very first convocation because we have a vision, we have a Centre for Smart Manufacturing, with
in 1969. purpose and we’ve been trying to get a little funding from the Natural Sciences and

But the college faced growing demand better,” said Conestoga College President Engineering Research Council of Canada,
which resulted in the opening of a John Tibbits, who took on the job in 1987, to provide students from various IT and
permanent campus in Guelph in 1970. Within in a previous interview with the Chamber. engineering programs with a hands-on
a few years, not only did construction began In the fall of 2006, he shared some of that chance to work with industry partners in the
on its Early Childhood Education Centre at vision when plans were unveiled for a robotics, automation, and manufacturing
its main Doon campus but the college also proposed Cambridge campus to be located sectors. In 2018, the Conestoga Applied
established its nursing program when the on a 136-acre site near Blair. According Research Facility opened at 96 Grand Ave.
responsibility of four regional schools of to an article published in the Cambridge
nursing was transferred to Conestoga. Times that September, the campus was to

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